I'm just going to come out and say it.

64 posts in this topic

I think he has earned another year regardless, but I do think it's funny how much two games influence your opinions.

It doesn't excuse the sh&#33;tshows against the Isles and Buffalo, but the team really showed a lot of heart with a gutted lineup the last two games and never packed it in when they had every reason to do just that. The players deserve a lot of credit for that, but so does the coach. I've been critical of Pete this year and I've admittedly wavered at times about whether I want him back next year, (mostly after reading a TG tweet about another lineup decision that pissed me off), but I've always thought in the back of my mind that he deserves another chance with a stronger roster. All in all- some of the maddening lineup decisions aside- he's done a decent job to have the team in the thick of the race after losing his two best players not named Elias in consecutive summers. And hopefully Marty and some of the other vets (read: Sal) will be gone next year. Plus- there's no real clear upgrade available (right now) to replace him with. So all in all, it adds up to the Devils cutting off their nose to spite their face if they fire Pete.

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It doesn't excuse the sh!tshows against the Isles and Buffalo, but the team really showed a lot of heart with a gutted lineup the last two games and never packed it in when they had every reason to do just that. The players deserve a lot of credit for that, but so does the coach. I've been critical of Pete this year and I've admittedly wavered at times about whether I want him back next year, (mostly after reading a TG tweet about another lineup decision that pissed me off), but I've always thought in the back of my mind that he deserves another chance with a stronger roster. All in all- some of the maddening lineup decisions aside- he's done a decent job to have the team in the thick of the race after losing his two best players not named Elias in consecutive summers. And hopefully Marty and some of the other vets (read: Sal) will be gone next year. Plus- there's no real clear upgrade available (right now) to replace him with. So all in all, it adds up to the Devils cutting off their nose to spite their face if they fire Pete.

Also, last year really shouldn't count. I mean, yes, they missed the playoffs, but a lot of weird sh&#33;t happened in 48 games. They replaced Parise and Sykora with Bobby Butler. Kovalchuk missed a quarter of the season, and the Devils had some of the worst goaltending you could ever have. Johan Hedberg and his .883 save percentage started 19 friggen games. He was so bad that you yearned for Brodeur and his .901 save percentage to come back.

They played damn well last year. As I have said most of the year, Deboer has coached the hell out of what he has. Up to Lou to give him some better players.

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Also, last year really shouldn't count. I mean, yes, they missed the playoffs, but a lot of weird sh!t happened in 48 games. They replaced Parise and Sykora with Bobby Butler. Kovalchuk missed a quarter of the season, and the Devils had some of the worst goaltending you could ever have. Johan Hedberg and his .883 save percentage started 19 friggen games. He was so bad that you yearned for Brodeur and his .901 save percentage to come back.

They played damn well last year. As I have said most of the year, Deboer has coached the hell out of what he has. Up to Lou to give him some better players.

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IMO, the much bigger problem with the Devils is the lack of top-level talent, not the coaching behind the bench. Looking at the big picture, IMO Deboer has done a pretty good job with what he has to work with.

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Team wasn't that good, but a better managed team probably would have yielded five more wins. Doesn't sound like much, but that would be the difference between playoffs and golf with the position we're in right now.

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IMO, the much bigger problem with the Devils is the lack of top-level talent, not the coaching behind the bench. Looking at the big picture, IMO Deboer has done a pretty good job with what he has to work with.

i agree with most of this here.. although i feel like deboer has been a little off with some of the line up decisions but what do we really know we arent behind the scenes with these guys, but definently cant just go off of the performance that the team has been putting out theres just no talent this year besides a select few players which is simply and clearly just not enough for a successful on ice performance.

I feel like this message could've been written about the Devils/Rockies 30 years ago. Something like: Lock up Chico, develop Cirella and Daneyko, acquire some scorers. Then we're set, right? If this is where we are at then we have taken quite a few steps back peeps.

More like 20 years ago -- develop Nieds, lock up Marty, pick up some scorers. That team had Johnny Mac, so we're behind on that, but otherwise, not much worse. Obviously, we don't have a guy as good as Nieds, but we have 3 good, young, NHL ready defensemen, so if we don't keep riding washed up guys, we're gonna be in decent shape.

Ownership needs to talk with Lou about the GM succession plan. That's a must before everything else. Hearing rumors of McPhee possibly coming here if he gets axed in DC.

Deboer likely survives but he should be put on notice next year. Some change is necessary at forward still. The mix just isn't good enough and cohesive.

Agreed on both. The team needs to decide what's going to happen after Lou, especially after a couple of disappointing seasons (not sure if it's Lou's fault entirely, but needs to at least be considered). I think DeBo has done enough with bad rosters to earn another year, but at some point, the coach needs to be accountable, and he's certainly made mistakes.

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50% The management (Lou) This team roster is sh!tty and our best area (defense IMO) is average too what you can see on good teams in this league. The contracts given to some players are dumb and have been pretty obviously so from the moment they were signed. You can add to this the acceptance of average results or mediocrity as Brodeur would say. While this roster is no gold mine, there seem to be no real moves in the right direction (apart from Schneider) being made or at least tried. We have seen in the last couple of seasons teams with ridiculous rosters come up with deals that significantly improved their rosters, but we seem to be always happy to say '' no we don't have the pieces to trade for this or that guy''. Alex Hemsky was acquired for a 3rd and 5th round pick and while he may not be a savior for the Senator, I think he is much better than 50% of the garbage we are dressing every night on our top 2 lines.

30% or maybe less The coaching. While he have been good for us in the Stanley cup run. He is stubborn and is willing to repeat the same mistakes over and over again thinking that something is going to magically change. Gelina is 3rd in terms of points among rookie Defense-men, with 15 games less than the 2 guys ahead of him. Why do you have to put him in and out of the lineup so many times ? Its either you play the guy or put him back in the AHL. Apart from stupid decisions like this one and playing Brodeur so much I can't really say anything more than that since the guy has been given sh!t to work with.

20% The players themselves who are also accepting this sh!t and seem to disappear every fvcking night. How many times did we blow a fvcking lead this season ? Do you need fvcking coaching to keep a lead ? Total lack of effort and personality by most of the roster. Not a single time team stood up and managed to win a shootout. A single shootout ! Too much !!! What kind of locker room is this sh!t ?

Edited April 10, 2014 by SS-SS

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50% The management (Lou) This team roster is sh!tty and our best area (defense IMO) is average too what you can see on good teams in this league. The contracts given to some players are dumb and have been pretty obviously so from the moment they were signed. You can add to this the acceptance of average results or mediocrity as Brodeur would say. While this roster is no gold mine, there seem to be no real moves in the right direction (apart from Schneider) being made or at least tried. We have seen in the last couple of seasons teams with ridiculous rosters come up with deals that significantly improved their rosters, but we seem to be always happy to say '' no we don't have the pieces to trade for this or that guy''. Alex Hemsky was acquired for a 3rd and 5th round pick and while he may not be a savior for the Senator, I think he is much better than 50% of the garbage we are dressing every night on our top 2 lines.

30% or maybe less The coaching. While he have been good for us in the Stanley cup run. He is stubborn and is willing to repeat the same mistakes over and over again thinking that something is going to magically change. Gelina is 3rd in terms of points among rookie Defense-men, with 15 games less than the 2 guys ahead of him. Why do you have to put him in and out of the lineup so many times ? Its either you play the guy or put him back in the AHL. Apart from stupid decisions like this one and playing Brodeur so much I can't really say anything more than that since the guy has been given sh!t to work with.

20% The players themselves who are also accepting this sh!t and seem to disappear every fvcking night. How many times did we blow a fvcking lead this season ? Do you need fvcking coaching to keep a lead ? Total lack of effort and personality by most of the roster. Not a single time team stood up and managed to win a shootout. A single shootout ! Too much !!! What kind of locker room is this sh!t ?

The Devils do not have any bad contracts, which I consider contracts that hamstring you from making other realistic moves that would help the team, either in the present or down the road. Over the course of the past two years, the team lost it's two best scorers and still would have made the playoffs had the better goalie gotten more starts. Yes, that situation is partly on Lou, partly on DeBoer, but sh&#33;t happens sometimes. Let's go through teams and see how well they would be doing in a similar situation, Ducks lose Perry and Getzlaf, Penguins lose Crosby and Malkin, Rags lose Nash and Stepan, Caps lose Ovechkin and Backstrom, Sharks lose Thonton and Couter, Kings lose just Kopitar and say Brown. The only team that has managed to survive something like that is Detroit, but they're really in a class by themselves.

There will be plenty of time for post mortems, and the like, but, assuming some very realistic personnel decisions (not signing Marty, signing Jagr) I'm actually fairly optimistic about the team's prospects for next year.